I'm not a fan placing anti-7/11 writings and stickers on private property and support the rights of businesses to open wherever they please.

That said, how could a 7-11 even survive in the East Village? I thought the point of living in the East Village was to enjoy unique people, places, events and establishments. Patronizing a 7-11 in the East Village actually destroys the characteristics of the neighborhood the customer (both visitors and residents) was attracted to in the first place.

Sorry that was so long. I really don't understand how these quickie marts are popping up left, right, and center.

nygrump -- will corporate controlfrom afar really serve labor better once there's nothing left in NYC but corporate control? At least there are local labor orgs that deal with sweatshops, and sweatshops don't get special exemptions from city regulations (the city exempted convenience stores like 7-Eleven from the supersize ban just when 7-Eleven entered the NYC market, and the supersize sugar drink is a 7-Eleven trademark).

Mike -- they're not popping up, their being opened by a corporate strategy -- over 100 new stores planned in NYC. That strategy is not to find a market but to choke out what's already there already serving us viably and then to monopolize the market. When they've commandeered the market, then, like Starbucks, they'll close a bunch of non-sustainable excess stores. Until then, they'll support those excess stores with their corporate resources. It's a corporate take-over of your streets. And what do 7-Elevens sell? Corporate packaged goods. This is not the free market. It's bullying from above bulldozing everything from below. Adam Smith is rolling in his grave.

@RobI would be really interested to hear more about the parties involved in the smoke filled room of the soda ban policy talks. The timing of the ban and 7-11's entrance to the market is very suspect. It seems like it was crafted perfectly to allow 7-11 to get an advantage.

I hope the story comes out some day.

I am all for free enterprise, but for it to be free, all enterprises should have a level playing field.

@1:11 -- Free enterprise my ass --it's blatant corporate take-over. The goal is local monopoly. Look at the strategy. It's not serving a market, it's closing it out. What doyou think the result will be -- more diversity of offerings catering to the market here? It'll be a limiting of the market.No more incredible cashews on 2ndAve, no more crazy sandwiches on B. It's not stopping here. It'sonly beginning. They don't stop --isn't that what the recessiontaught us?

@Mike, the East Village has no gates. I bet that the young bros & their ilk on their pub crawls (i.e., people who don't really give a shit about the neighborhood) won't see any problem whatsoever with patronizing a 7-11 for shitty-ass processed food at 3 AM or whatever, since they probably grew up around them in suburbia. Even if no East Villager goes in any 7-11, I think the stores will probably survive. Which sucks.

to fit in, 7-11 has proomised to make the one in the East Village an exact replica of the first in the 1960's-they will staff it with one unprotected employee and an unlocked register- and it will be the only one to open at 7am and close at 11pm.

A new article in the Observer has an ominous quote from Ken Barnes, Senior Director of Northeast Regional Development for 7-Eleven. “We can’t open more New York locations fast enough,” Mr. Barnes said. “Every neighborhood is a target.”

7-Eleven spokesperson Margaret Chabris said the neighborhood is a "target" because of it's “young adults and young families on a budget."

Margaret Chabris is quoted as saying "Currently, this part of the East Village is underserved... 7-Eleven will provide attractive stores and bring new jobs, a franchise business opportunity and services to this part of town."

This corporate issued statement is untrue. There is already an existing bodega one block north of the incoming Avenue A / 11th Street 7-Eleven, as well as an existing bodega one block south. There is no need or demand for a 7-Eleven at this location.

Again, there is no need to fear. Depinto and crew will smacked down hard by the trifecta of Poppy's , Westville, and Tompkins Square Bagels. He will be thoroughly embarrassed in front of his fellow CEO's for choosing such a dopey location. Joe: This ain't the Midwest. Hell, it ain't even the West Village or Murry Hill. The kids in this schoolyard play rough. So bring your A game and be prepared to get knocked around. You're going up against hardened New Yorker's this time. We will scratch and claw and do whatever it takes to win. Andiamo baby ! Bring it .

I like it, it's a mostly civilized way of voicing an opinion. People don't like to be "targeted" by corporations and I can understand the reaction and response to 7-11's mission. And to me, it runs a little deeper than just an opposition to the 7-11, it's the implications. The area around 11th and A is one of the few enclaves left in the city that is mostly free of chain stores and 7-11 is an especially visible and soul-less type of chain store and I think people are afraid of some kind of beachhead being established.

Of course 7-11 is engaging in a corporate strategy to open as many stores in and make as much money from the East Village as possible. But just because that strategy, and the one to defeat its competition, comes from a corporation doesn't change the fact that it is part of the free market system and can only succeed if enough people voluntarily buy their products.

We may not like what pops up as a result of that strategy, but the ultimate success of it comes to what people freely choose to buy or not buy.

Yes, I support 7-11's right to its strategy without having its windows smashed, but I cannot understand how anyone would choose say, a hot dog that's been on rollers for hours over something like Belgian fries at the candy store. If chalking helps draw attention to what 7-11 is doing and drives them out, that's cool too. Actually, preferable.

What if hot dogs are all that's available? Mike, you are way too generous. Adam Smith(forgive my pulling names)observed right at the start that markets are all conditioned by their context. Suppose your bodega survives because there are only two on your block, but then a corporate entity with unlimited resources opens four surrounding you. You'll lose enough market share to close. Then watch as the corporate entity close the excess stores that it used solely to close you down, leaving only their store and their hot dogswhich everyone must buy now, like it or not. We saw this with the bars. There used to be sustainable copy shops on nearly every corner. Bars can pay higher rents and theyhave no competition: density of bars create a strip attracting more non-local patrons. The result was the replacement of a local "free market" with a non-local "free market." The local service and the local consumer lost, not to a competition for that service but to a different market context.

That's going to happen to the convenience market -- non-local commerce will replace local convenience stores because 7-Eleven is within the kids' comfort zone. And the kids really do like 7-Eleven and don't care about local markets or corporate control of the market from afar. That's really the battle -- the kids vs local commerce. In any case, using "free market" as a catch-all for the complexities and distortions of economies is misleading at best,in my opinion, 7-Elevencorporate hypocrisy at worst.

7-11 was a Mom & Pop operation founded in nineteen fckin twenty-seven; it's the epitome of the American Success Story. Some people want their Slim Jims and if you're not one of them, quit whining and don't shop there. Turn your attention to something truly important like the massive rat infestation in Tompkins Square Park.

Yeah, 2:36, an American success like Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Moody's. Try Russo's beef jerky on 11th St. Way better. Or the jerky in Chinatown, Elizabeth St. This is New York, for f**k's sake,not some wasteland surfer town.

Does 7-11 have to pay the credit card company a surcharge if they accept a credit card for payment? They do? But they don't pass it on to the customer? Weird. Is anyone trying to make sure that I stay in business?

You raise good points Rob, but at the end of the day, the results of free market competition always come down to choice. Corporate "invasions" can only decrease a local bodega's market share if the consumers are willing to give business to the newcomers.

If people choose 7-11 over a bodega, like they might, or the Bean over Starbucks, like the are, so be it.

I'm just curious when citizens' right to assemble, organize and boycott stopped being part of the "free market systemTM"? Apparently people may only be participants in the "free market systemTM" by not patronizing providers.

Additionally, democratically implemented legislation regulating the conduct of corporate entities is a violation of the "free market systemTM", but government implemented legislation regulating the conduct of natural persons is not.

Choice is a fiction too, Mike -- gotta eat, gotta bank unless you like a lumpy mattress, and look at the options: a Chase on every corner or one lone Credit Union way over on B. Corporates own your choices. @3:34, 5:50 and 5:54 -- 'NO 7-Eleven'is on FB and Twitter. Hope I get to meet you all atour next gathering. Mike included. (-:"Freemarket TM" -- nailed it.Drop me a line. lesrrd@gmail.com

The arguments against commercial zoning restrictionsare not about free market fictions. The worry is over rent distortions.

Restrictions on corporate outlets drive commercial rents down just as restrictions on liquor licenses do. In a low-income rental district, landlords depend on high-rent commerce. Lose that and you can see landlords abandoning buildings.

But most EV landlords are rolling in dough, thoughthey don't tell you that, and the landlord of this location, Shaoul, is a real estate magnate. There is no threat of depressing this neighborhood. On the contrary, it's attracting revenue through NYU.

So the economic consequences of a restriction herewould be beneficial to the community, allowing services that are useful and desirable but that have lower profit margins than chains and bars. You might even get a bookstore or a performance space. The burden would be borne by the landlord, but in this neighborhood, he won't be hurt enough to abandon or even curtail services. Lower rents will have no effect on prices as long as we have plenty of local convenience store competition, and why would they close unless 7-Eleven breaks them?

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